Publications

30 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Are You Supporting Your B Players?

By day, managers run themselves ragged worrying about their A players: their stars, their rainmakers, their top 15 percent. By night, the same managers fret over their C players—their bottom 15 percent of staff. The C players are those... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?

By: Eva Ascarza and Emilie Billaud

This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies’ abilities to provide customer satisfaction while... View Details

Keywords: Simplicity; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customization and Personalization; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Efficiency; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Europe; Germany

18 Jul 2019
Lessons from the Classroom

The Internet of Things Needs a Business Model. Here It Is

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been near the top of the technology-hype lists for years. In 2018, Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies ranked IoT platforms as cresting the “peak of inflated expectations” stage and ready to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Computer

May 2009
Article

The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad

By: Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Boris Groysberg and Nitin Nohria

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. Few companies are thinking about hiring right now, but that's a mistake. If history... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles

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01 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

CEOs and Coaches: How Important is Organizational 'Fit?'

overrated when it comes to choosing coaches—and perhaps while choosing top managers as well. A successful coach-team or employee-employer match can be found even when the coach/employee is inexperienced. There are several such examples... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik; Sports

04 Aug 2003
What Do You Think?

Are We Facing an Attitude Shortage?

'attitude problem' is at the top, not the bottom!" Meenal Dandavate concurred: "[Attitude]...can be cultivated consciously, but mostly it has the tendency to flow/cascade from the top down." Others concentrated on reasons... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

December 2019
Case

Small-Market Teams and Big Stars: The Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo

By: Anita Elberse and Melcolm Ruffin

In October 2019, National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Milwaukee Bucks are about to tip off their first home game in the 2019–2020 NBA season. Peter Feigin, president of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Jon Horst, the league’s youngest general manager, could look back... View Details

Keywords: Superstars; Talent and Talent Management; Sports; Strategy; Sports Industry

November 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A)

By: Frances X. Frei and Matthew Todd Perlberg

As NBA Commissioner David Stern approached the podium, silent anticipation gripped the 4,000 Houston Rockets fans gathered at the Rockets Draft Party. "With the 8th pick in the 2006 NBA draft," Stern began, "the Houston Rockets select Rudy Gay from the University of... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Talent and Talent Management; Competitive Strategy; Operations; Groups and Teams; Sports Industry

14 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 14

characterized by some boundary conditions (Study 6). We discuss the theoretical contribution of this work to research on moral regulation and ethical behavior. "CEO Relational Leadership and Strategic Decision Quality in Top... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2019
Book

Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt

By: Arthur C. Brooks

To get ahead today, you have to be a jerk, right?

Divisive politicians. Screaming heads on television. Angry campus activists. Twitter trolls. Today in America, there is an “outrage industrial complex” that prospers by setting American against... View Details

Keywords: Political Participation; Political Culture; Moral Sensibility; Government and Politics; Society; United States

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01 Aug 2012
What Do You Think?

Should CEOs Worry About ‘Too Big to Succeed?’

(five-year) performance is roughly as impressive as the prior (five-year) overperformance." Extending their study to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, and the U.K., the researchers conclude that "The View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing; Financial Services

August 2015 (Revised May 2017)
Case

TSG Hoffenheim: Football in the Age of Analytics

By: Feng Zhu, Karim R. Lakhani, Sascha L. Schmidt and Kerry Herman

In 2015, Dietmar Hopp, owner of Germany's Bundesliga football team TSG Hoffenheim and co-founder of the global enterprise software company SAP, was considering how to ensure long-term sustainability and competitiveness for TSG Hoffenheim. While historically a small... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Measurement and Metrics; Sports; Sports Industry

March 2010
Case

Target: Responding to the Recession

By: Ranjay Gulati, Rajiv Lal and Cathy Ross

Within 10 months of Gregg Steinhafel's taking over as CEO at Target, the U.S. was mired in the most significant economic downturn in 50 years. Top competitor Wal-Mart had positioned itself well for the crisis, while Target's same store sales began to slide. While... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Strategy; Operations; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Competition; Retail Industry; United States

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Eastern Bank: Innovating Through Eastern Labs

By: Karen Mills, Dennis Campbell and Aaron Mukerjee

Eastern Bank is a 200-year-old New England mutual bank with a community focus. Eastern specializes in small business lending, having made strategic investments to become the top SBA lender in New England in the midst of the Great Recession, when other banks were... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Management

10 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Women at Work

"Work/Life Balance: Are We Comfortable with the Choices We Make?" moderated by HBS professor Robin Ely, discussed their work/life decisions and the repercussions of those decisions at the 12th Annual Dynamic Women in Business Conference held at Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild

27 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Take Responsibility for Rising Stars

bench strength. At Starbucks, for example, the board oversees a formalized succession-planning process for 2,500 positions. Its goal is to make sure the company always has the right people with the right... View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey M. Cohn, Rakesh Khurana & Laura Reeves

02 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles of 2011

badly. Other apparent areas of interest in the last 12 months included corporate social responsibility, marketing techniques, and, of course, the ubiquitous Lady Gaga. Here are the Top 10 most-read articles and 10 most-read working papers... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

21 May 2018
HBS Case

How Would You Price One of the World's Great Watches?

customer-centric, and how they maintain a link to their past. "It’s one of the very few companies in this world that was started—and reached the top of its industry—twice" “There is this balance between [being] innovative, but... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Fashion

October 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Supplement

PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion

By: Ayelet Israeli and Fabrizio Fantini

PittaRosso, a traditional Italian shoe retailer, is implementing an AI system to provide pricing and promotion recommendations. The system allows them to implement changes that would affect both the top of funnel and bottom of funnel activities for the company: once... View Details